Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The archeological museum
Leofóros Aníxeos 47; Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • €2 •
T
23310 24972
he town's modest
archeological museum
has three rooms on a single floor. Two of these
display finds from the
Hellenistic
period, with funerary relics in the shape of vases,
weapons and jewellery in the first, while the second concentrates on sculptures,
inscriptions and figurines. The third room is devoted to sculptures and other remains
from the
Roman
period, while the garden at the back has an impressive array of columns.
Byzantine Museum
Thomaidhos 26; Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm • €2 •
T
23310 25847
Véria's outstanding
Byzantine Museum
is housed in a beautifully restored nineteenth-
century flour mill. It mostly comprises an exquisite display of icons - Véria was
renowned for its painting workshops in the late Middle Ages - along with other
treasures mostly from the Byzantine era, including coins. On the ground floor, a highly
moving video, with English subtitles, records the history of the mill, its demise and its
exemplary refurbishment.
Ottoman and Jewish Véria
What remains of the old
bazaar
straddles central Kendrikís, while downhill and to the
west tumbles the riverside Ottoman quarter of
Barboúta
(aka Barboúti). Largely
Jewish
before the 1944 deportations annihilated the thousand-strong community, it is today
being swiftly gentrified. The disused
synagogue
can be reached via Odhós Dhekátis
Merarhías, past the conspicuous officers' club near Platía Oroloyíou. Situated on a
plaza with a small amphitheatre, it is a long stone building with an awning over the
door, which is sometimes left ajar, allowing you to look at the rambling, arcaded
interior. Of the many handsome nineteenth-century mansions hereabouts, the
impeccably restored
Arhondikó Béka
currently houses the International Institute of
Traditional Architecture.
Survivals of the
Muslim
presence in Véria are more numerous and conspicuous, but
less well restored. It is worth hunting down the twin hammam complex,
Dhídhymi
Loutrónes
, at the end of Loutroú, the small
Ortá Tzamí
mosque just of Kendrikís, and
the splendid
Medresé Tzamí
mosque on Márkou Bótsari, but do not expect to enter
them or be impressed by their state of conservation.
4
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
VÉRIA
By bus
The KTEL station is just off Venizélou at the
northern end of central Véria.
Destinations
Édhessa (Mon-Fri 3 daily; 1hr); Thessaloníki
(every 15min-1hr; 1hr 15min); Vergina (8-10 daily; 20min).
LITTLE JERUSALEM
Christianity
has a venerable and long history in Véria: St Paul preached here (Acts 17:10-14)
on two occasions, between 50 and 60 AD, and a gaudy alcove shrine or “altar” of modern
mosaics at the base of Mavromiháli marks the supposed spot of his sermons. Four dozen or so
small
churches
, some medieval but mostly dating from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries,
are scattered around the town, earning it the moniker of
Little Jerusalem
. Under Ottoman
rule, many were disguised as barns or warehouses, with little dormer windows rather than
domes to admit light; but today, often surrounded by cleared spaces and well labelled, they're
not hard to find. The only church regularly open, however, is the well-signposted
Resurrection of Christ
, or
Anastásseos Christoú
(Tues-Sun 8.30am-3pm; free), with
cleaned fourteenth-century frescoes, near the fork end of Mitropóleos. The most striking
images here are a
Dormition/Assumption
over the west door and a rare image of Christ
mounting the Cross on a ladder on the north wall.
